This was the type of game that is almost decided buy the coin toss. Not sure who won the toss, wasn't paying attention then, but Fredericktown was receiving the opening kick which meant NC would take it after the half.

Fredericktown opened the scoring at about 9:40 left in the first quarter on a fairly quick second series drive from near the 30 in their own territory after NC's defense had stopped the opening possession and the Blackcat D stopped NC's first drive. For the rest of the first it was a defensive slugfest, both offenses were moving the ball and coming up with a big play or two, but the defenses stiffened when needed so after one quarter, the 'Cats were on top, 7 to 0. One telling penalty in the first sort of portended the slugfest to come was an unsportsmanlike penalty against NC's defense when the 'Cats were driving towards the endzone on the 25. The NC player took a swing at James Royer at the end of the play, got flagged and ejected for the game. I seem to remember this was on the 'Cats first scoring drive, but don't remember for sure.

North County opened the scoring in the second, tieing the score at 7 with 10:16 or so left in the half. On this drive a couple Blackcat penalties helped keep NC's drive alive, I think a facemask and encroachment were called. However, NC's offense was beginning to take off, Their QB #4 Compton was starting to look like Drury from SG, running the ball well to the outside, while zipping the ball in the air to open receivers for a few long gains. The 'Cats defense were playing quite a few more blitzes and putting good pressure on the QB, but that was leaving receivers open. After a minus two-yard kick-off (on-side that rolled backward to the 38) the 'Cats answered making it 14 -7 with 8:50 or so left. On this short drive, the 'Cats offense looked like to O we have come to love this year, good runs by Gremminger and Royer, with a few good passes to Korokis and Sawyer. However, the NC O turned it right around and answered, tieing the score once again at 14 with 6:30 left. About a minute later the 'Cats again took the lead at 21. NC took a little more time off the clock on the next drive, but scored to tie it at 21 with a little less than 3 minutes left. The NC defense stiffened forcing the 'Cats to punt. NC marched the ball to the north endzone for most of the remaining 2 or so minutes, but I think an interception on the five with a few seconds left ended the drive. The 'Cats took a knee to close the half.

North County took the kick-off at the half, and if I remember correctly, took their time to march it down the field on this drive. My notes show the next score was NC scoring to make it 28 -- 21 with 6:42 left in the third. The 'Cats slowed it down too and marched it in to tie it at 28 with a little less than 4 minutes left for the quarter. The rest of the quarter played out with both defenses stiffening up and keeping the offenses to only three and outs.

At the start of the fourth, NC's defense stopped the FredMO drive and allowed their offense to again march the ball down and score with 9:30 or so left, making it 35 - 28. The defenses both again forced a couple three and outs and there might have been a Radier INT in there somewhere. However, according to my notes, FredMo took over the ball with 3:30 left in the game near midfield. They then got into the endzone on a James Royer TD with 2 minutes left in the game. On the PAT, the 'Cats chose to try for the two-points and the win. The 'Cats took a time out. They then lined up in a goal-line formation, but a procedure call moved the ball back five yards. After another time out, they lined up in the more typical spread, but the pass to Royer on the left side of the endzone was intercepted by NC. The 'Cats then tried an on-side kick which was unsuccessful. North County only needed to get one first down to allow them to run out the clock and take the 35-34 win.

Overall, this was one of the most exciting games I've seen in awhile, ranks up there with the PHC OT game from a few weeks ago. NC runs a very effective spread offense, I think the coach must have read Coach Stolzer's book. My feeling is both offenses were almost evenly matched. North County's pass offense may be a little more efficient, more longer passes than Fredericktown, and maybe a few less incompletes. Both sides had several deep passes that fell out of the receivers' hands. Compton did most of the running same as Gremminger, but Compton had to run mostly to the outside. Having Royer in there poking holes for Jeremy makes a difference. I don't remember too many hand-offs to other backs by NC, so Compton probably has the vast majority of the ground yards. James Royer took several had-offs and should be second on yardage for the 'Cats. Stat-wise I'd suspect the totals are fairly even for both sides, I want to see some published soon!

Defensively, again, both sides were about even. The 'Cats blitzed a lot more in this game than they have before, but that opened up a few long passes by NC to counter. The 'Cats sacked the QB several times and won that stat, I don't remember as many on Gremminger. One telling sequence I remember, the 'Cats had sacked Compton twice forcing a third and 25 on about the 'Cats forty. The Raiders recovered and threw a great pass to get the first down and then some. NC double and triple teamed the 'Cats recieveres and kept the completion totals down, but the run total for the 'Cats should be about even with NC's total.

There were two plays that may qualify as the most "unusual" plays I've seen, both committed by the Raiders. One was the negative yard kick-off mentioned about, a on-side that instead of rolling straight towards the 50 yard --sideline corner, curved backward toward the NC line. Now rule gurus, would a Blackcat player had to have touched it to down the ball? The other was a third down play on the Blackcat 20. As the play-clock wound down, the QB was looking to the sideline to get a play change, but for some reason, the center snaps the ball back about twenty yards where the QB had to cover it up to keep it from the Blackcat defense. Not sure, but the center might have been faked out by the 'Cats defense.

I saw a comment on spoilers, I'll say this: Class 4, Dist 1 better watch out for the Raiders. They have vastly improved and I think can give any team in their district a good challenge.